WEALTH IN REFUSE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20705, 1 May 1929, Page 12

WEALTH IN REFUSE.

V-; THE SQUALLED V JRUBBISH.- ' HOW FORTUNES* ARE POSSIBLE. If a newly-discovcred process for* making clothes _ from the fibre of the maize stalk comes into'use . there is-small doubt that fortunes ■will speedily-be made from what is; sheer rubbish to-day. In the New York Assay Office. an ingenious processliterallyl extracts gold from the aif. Fumes leave the gold furnaces containing tiny . articles- of tile precious metal. They arc into <" Settling- chambers, ’’’ where an apparatus -picks; out the; gpld; Since the iustiillation was made £3OOO 1 has been-saved—from .the aif. ' 1 ; . At the mouth of the Usk. near New--■port, Afon., is: an, immense. shoal of boal. - sediment, washed down from -the - Monf mouthshire coal areas. .'Not until the coal stoppage of 1921 was,tbis - great coal bank, ■ dry at low tide, ■ exploited.’. But since then a regular "fleet of small craft- ’.has' been kept busy bringing the coal up for ‘- l ’sale .to factories. 'Frequently as ■ much' as 800 tons 'a week is sold on the - local’ kct.. ’ ■ ' • .- Fortunes* arc thrown away maUparts of the country through domestic ashbins. ’ > For example, tine people of. Kendal, West-: moreland, throw out among' their -. refuse / .1000 to 1800 tons of cinders annually.? These>‘.cindefs'"actually ’ htfre a' higher'-';; heating value than; house, coke,-, and ■ are worth 10s atom ’ London Dumps 1,500,000-tons of refuse annually.’ ;Jt actually costs £700,0p0 a year to throw; this away; without considering;-.--; the cost, of its collection. ■ At last it .has been -realised that the vast- bulk of . this refuse calf be transformed into valuable cornmodoties for use in. farming, -road-' makings and so on. The experts say that, if London’s refuse could" be handled bodily by one authority in the;most.modern scientific-mannerflho sale of the by-products would ■ bring enormous relief to the ratepayers, while- '■ 33,000.000 units of electricity could;,be’ made ffom. it. each year for, power.users. If London could abolish' smoke it would,” save, £8.000,000- a year, for’ that is tb«- ; value ,of the' energy dissipated in, thisrb' form, f If- the nation did the 'same it, - would, -retrieve,..£.4o,ooo,ooo. . from, tbn skies. , - ;>v . The huge cooling ■ towers of ; electric.-’, generating stations' .throw off-, immense; i quantities of heated aif : intq the. aim Os- : .phere. Other stations discharge enormous quantities of hot water into rivers’ -and;.. - 1 fiinals, ...The,.value of . the-'heat; so care-.- . lessly cast ‘.Aside* is .stupendous. ” ThatTfite. - terod away by .the tmvers should bo-cap-. tured toy generating-' power. .r The hot' water could be circulated. to factories,- ■■ laundries, public. baths, • hotels; and-'pri-vate: houses. , .Vf : • ; . - II ptopccly treated; smoke. would make : fertilisers,'scents, drugs. disinfectants ,ap4 “.vm or, us. One single-northern Indus.'!-'/ trial, firm,"which installed smoke proven- . ■ tion devices, found itself saving £25,000 a year. , • •• ’. Every coalfield .Britain -possesses ; is 4' potential Eldorado. ..The, coalfields-- ana,littered with giant mounds of slack and-'.-waste coUl, raised from pits now, • abandoned. Ninety-nine people out of -100 .re-,b gavd; these’, as . useless rubbish. .They, are.’ nothing of .the sort. One such"group- of ’’, mounds near .Walsall, -has ' become.- the' scene of a. flourishing new industry,’ after, lyingV untouched, for ,70 years., The latest fv brick-baking equipment has been put.’in,.;.'’ • and the rock and shale - iif the dumps arc { rapidly being converted ’ into neat red ’ br.icks. . . ; ~, „